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I want to thank you for your time and effort. I'm mulling over my options.

My hope was to regain access to the Recovery partition and restore the boot record to its original state. I thought that was what DBP was supposed to do, but it doesn't seem to be any help in this case.

I don't see what deleting the Recovery partition will accomplish, unless you think that is what originally caused this problem. Oh, and I don't see any way to access the files on the Recovery partition -- it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer and unless Disk Management provides a way to view the files, I'm at a loss.

This just isn't my week/month for computers. I ordered a new PSU and when I installed it...it didn't work. Dead out of the box. I reinstalled the old PSU and things are back to normal -- well, abnormal normal.

The recovery partition is part of the problem because it is not lettered. When you tried to look at the files and folders, did you still have the hidden files and folders option checked and the hide operating system files unchecked?

Yes, for the time being I've left the folder/file options to show everything.

I will contact technical support (for the computer) and see if they can tell me anything about the Recovery partition. Maybe they can provide me with a way to delete it and then recreate it (giving it a letter).

Incidentally, I used DBP to look at my other computer and I was reassured to see it providing actual information. I can see that an unidentified (no letter) partition could cause a problem. In the end, I expect I'll have to just delete it and proceed from there.

I'll let you know what the tech support people say about the Recovery partition (I'm not actually expecting any useful information from them, since their knowledge seems pretty limited, but it's worth a try.

I'm back. I spoke with technical support and my suspicion is true -- the Recovery partition is lost and there is no way to recreate. So, I went ahead and deleted the partition and now I have a single partition with XP Pro installed.

However, the original boot problem still exists and DBP doesn't recognize the existence of any OS on this HDD. Unless you have another suggestion, I'm going to just go ahead and reformat the hard drive and try again. I simply don't see any way of fixing the current situation.

Then click on Diagnostics and run it to see if you get anything on the Operating system tab.

If you do click on each one and pay attention to where it says the OS is located, you should be able to tell which if any is a viable OS, and delete the one that is not by clicking on it and deleting it

Diagnostics? Nothing there. That what has really confused me from the beginning with this problem -- DBP doesn't recognize that there is an operating system installed on this computer. Every option shows nothing -- with one exception. Under tools, the Legacy Editor shows this:

I deleted the second line in the Legacy Editor, and the second XP on the Boot Select screen did disappear. However, it remains to be seen if this will solve the overall problem. I still intend to set up a dual boot system with XP and Windows 7. Right now, DBP doesn't recognize the existence of any OS on this computer. I'm not at all sure what will happen when I try to install the second OS. I'll give it a try and let you know.

Now, it turns out that I have another problem on my older computer -- the one with XP Home and Vista Business. When I set up the dual boot system everything seemed to go smoothly. When I reached the boot select screen I opted for Vista and set about completing the installation and bring it up to date with SP1 and SP2 and other necessary updates. The main use for this computer is as a backup -- it's is ironic in the era of the Internet that so many companies offer support online, but if one is having computer problems it may not be possible to connect.

Anyway, I finally went back and logged on to XP Home and when I reached the desktop I got this error message:

Winlogon.exe has experienced a problem and needed to close.

When I shut XP down, either to OFF or Restart, I get the BSoD and the following error message:

STOP: c000021a {fatal system error}

The Windows logon process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0x80000003 (0x00000000 0x00000000)

The system has been shut down.

The system, that is Windows, has been shut down, but the computer must be turned off manually.

XP Home works normally, but obviously something is wrong if I'm getting error messages both beginning and ending a session.

Fortunately, DBP does recognize both OSs and there is information available concerning each. Of course, I still don't know anything about the MBR or what correct entries look like. Neither do I know if it is a problem there that is causing the difficulties or if the problem lies elsewhere.

Any ideas? I'll be glad to copy and paste the DBP information if that will help.